


Brothers

by Star_Fata



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Death References, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-19
Updated: 2013-02-19
Packaged: 2017-11-29 20:54:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/691335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Fata/pseuds/Star_Fata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim Drake finds an adoption certificate in his father's study. Life gets interesting afterwards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brothers

Tim had been staring at the same piece of paper for what felt like years. It was unbelievable how something as innocent as needing his birth certificate to humour Ives in his new obsession with horoscopes could change his life. Then again, it was probably equally hard to believe an innocent trip to the circus would result in a nine year old boy discovering the identities of costumed vigilantes Batman and Robin, five years later.

But still.... He did look a bit like his parents. He wasn’t imagining that. Everyone (including him) assumed that the major differences were due to recessive genes and various other factors.

Except that they weren’t. Because he’d inherited his looks from the people who’d decided to give him up.

It was an odd feeling. On one hand, it explained the odd sensation that he didn’t fit into the Drake family. On the other hand, he doubted he’d fit into his biological family, because much of who he’d become was due to the specific events and resources surrounding him.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to try. After all, this ‘Catherine Malone’ and ‘Willis Todd’ might have had other children. Maybe not with each other, but he’d always wanted a sibling, and it couldn’t hurt to try, right?

 

Tim was about ready to slam his head against his desk. After finding an obituary for Willis Todd dated about five years ago, he’d hacked the police mainframe. After all, what reason would a thirty year old man have to just drop dead? The information on his ‘father’ was telling. He’d been a minion of Two-face, and was suspected of being the one to sabotage the Graysons’ act.

Had he passed his father, all those years ago? Was he really the son of the man who’d killed; not only the Graysons, but the innocence of two boys? No. He was the son of Jack and Janet Drake. Willis Todd was merely the sperm donor. It was ironic that the man had had a hand in the most significant event of his young life, but he was not going to become Willis Todd.

And he was still going to search for his possible siblings. He knew the name of one, Jason Todd. According to his birth certificate, he was the son of Sheila Haywood. He would look both of them up... After he found out more about Catherine Malone.

The records on Catherine were woefully incomplete. Her date of birth, her marriage to Willis Todd (two years after he’d been born) and her death. The only way to get to know about the woman would be to ask the people with personal experience.

To do that, he’d need to fit in. Look out world, Timmy Malone was on his way. After he learnt about the world, of course.

 

It had taken four months before he felt able to approach the apartment Catherine had lived. His clothes had been bought from a charity shop, and showed their age and use, his hair was unbrushed, and he’d used the cheapest shampoo he could find that didn’t smell of flowers. He knew the slang of the area, from moving from teenage hangout to teenage hangout over the past four months, always adapting his looks and attitude to the area.

It had taken him a while before he found someone willing to talk to him about Catherine Todd. She’d been sick after Willis had gone down, and Jason had looked after her. When she’d died, Jason had kept on living in their apartment before being sent to Ma Gunn’s school for wayward boys.

He now had no other leads except Jason and his biological mother. Seeing as Sheila Haywood would probably not have information on Catherine, that left Jason. Tim managed to track him down... To his next door neighbour. Which was oddly ironic and utterly terrifying all at once.

Especially since this means his brother is Robin. His life has now come full circle.

There was no way in hell he could just walk up and talk to Jason though. He’d have to write a letter.

 

Two weeks later, Jason Todd looked at Alfred in surprise as the butler put a letter next to his plate.

“What?” He asked. “Is that for me?”

Alfred smiled. “The envelope appears to be addressed to you Master Jason.”

Jason stared at the letter suspiciously as Bruce and Alfred watched him, somewhat amused. Finally he shrugged and opened it. Inside, there was a small sheet of paper and a smaller envelope. He decided to read the paper first.

 

Dear Jason,

I recently discovered that I was adopted. When I tracked down my biological father, you were his son. My biological mother is Catherine Malone, and I hope that you’ll tell me more about her. If you want to, of course. If you want to know more about me, you can open the envelope enclosed. If not, you can just throw it away and never be tempted to use the information inside.

Your brother, T.

 

Jason was dumbstruck, and handed the letter to Bruce. He wanted him to make the world start making sense again. How could he have a brother? And what did T stand for anyway? Thaddeus? Thomas? Tucker? Tyrone? Maybe something weird like that boy at his school, Tawia.

That was it. He was opening the envelope, before his brain broke trying to give his ‘brother’ a name.

If you haven’t read the piece of paper enclosed in the envelope, do so now.

 

I found out I was adopted, and searched for my bio parents, Willis Todd and Catherine Malone. When I found Willis Todd’s obituary, I researched him further. Did you know he was the one who sabotaged the Flying Graysons? That scared me. I was four when my parents decided it’d be fun to go to the circus, and after that we haven’t been since. I’ve been trying to remember if I saw him, but I was only four. My only clear memories of that day are the end of the performance when... well, When.

It took much longer for me to find out about Catherine Malone, and I needed to know at least a little about her before I started looking for you. I suppose I could have asked Sheila Haywood for information on Willis, but I’m not particularly interested in him, as I’m sure you can understand.

My name is Timothy (Tim, never Timmy) Drake, and the irony is killing me when I write this, but I live right next door. Well, it’s not exactly right next door, but for this street it is. My adoptive parents are Jack and Janet, and they run Drake industries. You made a good impression on my father when he met you, but my mother thinks you’re a bit ‘rough’. Must have been the shiner you had that night.

I usually manage to avoid society parties (being short somehow relates to being delicate, which my mother equates to being ill) but the few times I haven’t been able to, you’ve been missing.

Okay, there is no way to make this even vaguely coherent, so here goes a long, boring list of facts.

I usually carry a camera around. I’m not particularly good just yet, but I enjoy taking pictures.

I’m smart. As in, college level science when I’m only thirteen smart. Sadly, maths and science appear to be the only areas where this intelligence will allow me to skip ahead.

I’ve known the identities of Batman and Robin since I was nine years old and saw the first Robin do a quadruple somersault.

I think that the only reason Dick could pull off the Robin outfit was because he was too young to know better. This changed when puberty hit, and I really think you should get Bruce to let you redesign the outfit into something with PANTS.

And what? There was some more information, about who Tim’s best friend was, his housekeeper’s name, but his brain was sort of broken. He handed this letter to Bruce as well.

“Little brother’s got a point about the pants.” He murmured absently. His brain was trying to reassemble, but he was just getting his head around possibly having a little brother. The ‘oh-shit-he-knows’ could come later, and the fact it was Dick’s fault would probably come five seconds after that.

He hoped that Tim really was his brother. The kid sounded fun.


End file.
